Statistics

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. -- The No.8 University of New England men's ice hockey team won a game with less than three goals for the third straight outing, chalking up a 2-1 Conference of New England (CNE) win over Nichols College on Saturday (Jan. 24) at Levy Rink.

UNE (13-5, 10-3 CNE) leaned more on its offense to prevail the first 10 times this season, averaging 5.7 goals in those matches, but over the last eight days, has only netted a total of six scores and still gutted out each result. The Nor'easters are now 13-0-2 in recent meetings against the Bison (7-10, 4-8).

Ike Keller got the visitors on the board with the only tally of the 1st period (12:27). Jacob Pellerin flipped the puck high out of the defensive zone and Juraj Elias immediately dished it to a streaking Keller on the left side. Keller was first into the offensive zone and tucked his fourth of the year inside the far post.

While Nichols drew even midway through the 2nd, as Jeremy Tremblay found unmarked space in the slot to punch home a feed from behind the cage, UNE continued to have about two-thirds of the shots on target. That pressure eventually paid off on the power play with 13 ticks left in the frame on an Elias one-timer from the inner edge of the right circle. Following a faceoff, Mike Tersoni was first to the puck in the corner and sent it around the wall to Dominic Murphy, whose centering pass dodged a few sticks to get across to Elias for a near-post rip.

After going eight contests without a goal entering the weekend, and point-less in five, back-to-back days finding the net has Elias tied for the team lead with eight markers on the campaign.

The 2-1 advantage through 40 minutes was good enough for the Nor'easters, who have closed out all 12 games when they had led at the 2nd intermission. UNE did have the last two out of five penalties to kill off during the 3rd, and the nation's top special teams unit (now 98.4%) held strong. Harrison Chesney supplied the rest of his 18 saves to backstop the win.

Ryan Henry put up 38 saves for the hosts.

UNE turns its attention to Johnson & Wales University and a home date on Friday (7 p.m.). The teams met for the first time on November 21 in Rhode Island and the Nor'easters converted three times on the power play in a 3-2 win.